After Chongzhen took out the words of Emperor Taizu Gao to prevaricate him, Sun Chengzong couldn't persuade him anymore.

He hesitated for a moment before he said to Chongzhen: "So, Your Majesty is unwilling to let Yuan Ziru take over the position of minister for the sake of today's military reform?" ”

Zhu Youzhen looked up at him and said, "Sir, you also know how important the General Staff will become after the reform of the military system. I really can't give the position of Chief of Staff to someone who could upset the political balance between the DPRK and China.

And in today's court, who else can I trust but Mr.? Does Sir really think that after our Mr. Yuan Ziru becomes the chief minister, he will maintain a neutral attitude towards court politics like you, sir? ”

Sun Chengzong was silent for a moment, the reason why he kept recommending Yuan Chonghuan to take over his position was entirely because he felt that with Yuan Chonghuan's courage and talent, he could resist the Jiannu who rose in Liaodong.

Compared with those officials in the court who did not even dare to go to the battlefield despite their boastful talk, Yuan Chonghuan was already a rare figure among the civil officials of the Ming Dynasty.

Although Mao Yuanyi was also talented, first, he was not from the imperial examination and could not be recognized by the Korean Chinese official group; Second, his literati personality was too strong to be recognized by the generals in the army.

Therefore, to be recognized by the imperial court and the army at the same time, Sun Chengzong thought that only Yuan Chonghuan was the most suitable. He hoped that Mao Yuanyi could serve as Yuan Chonghuan's deputy and help Yuan Chonghuan solve his shortcomings in military strategy.

However, Sun Chengzong's previous consideration was that the General Staff Headquarters was just a peacetime general settlement to replace the Governor's Office of the Five Armies and command the army during the war.

He didn't think that Chongzhen would raise the position of the General Staff so high, and now the military department is only left to supervise logistics and ordnance in addition to the final military expenditure review and officer appointment.

However, the General Staff Headquarters has extended from the military command organization when it was first established to the work of military and political management. It can be said that in the past, it was the military headquarters that usurped most of the power of the Governor's Office of the five armed forces, but now the General Staff Headquarters has the situation of overthrowing the military department.

According to today's plan for the reform of the military system, the power of his chief of staff will still be higher than that of the secretary of the military department, and the only thing that is lacking is that it is the secretary of the military department who speaks on behalf of the army in the court, not the chief of staff.

Son Seung-jong was able to guarantee that he would remain neutral in the political struggle between the DPRK and China in this position. But he couldn't guarantee whether his disciple Yuan Chonghuan could do the same, after all, this disciple's fame has never been hidden in front of people.

Sun Chengzong thought about it for a long time, then retreated and said to Chongzhen: "Old minister, hold up for Your Majesty for another two years, and see if this Yuan Ziru can take on the big responsibility."

However, if he does not make a mistake in these two years, can His Majesty reconsider and let him take over the position of minister? Looking at the current members of the General Staff and the officials in the court, there are really very few people who are qualified to be the chief of staff. ”

Zhu Youzhen pursed his lips and thought about it carefully, before he replied cautiously: "If Yuan Ziru is what everyone wants, even I can't stop it, so why should Mr. Sun worry about it."

On the contrary, Mr. Sun can work the position of chief of staff and see how to formulate a system to limit the excessive power of the chief of staff, so that I do not have to worry about the selection of the chief of staff every day. ”

Sun Chengzong was silent for a moment, and then wanted to get up and say goodbye to Chongzhen, but Zhu Youzhen stopped him again and said, "Actually, I have two other things, and I want to discuss them privately with Mr. ”

Sun Chengzong owed to Chongzhen, then sat down again and waited for the emperor's orders.

"One thing is that now we have built three army officer schools in Beijing, Nanjing, and Chengdu. Based on the cadets who graduated from these three military academies, when the local governor's office was established, the troops in the nearby provinces could be retrained and the imperial court's control over the local army could be strengthened.

However, the location of the two regions in Yunnan is remote, and the natural conditions are quite different from those in other regions, so if these three military academies are used to train officers in these places, I am afraid that it will be inconvenient to travel and there will be a situation in which the water and soil are not adapted.

Therefore, I hope that a new military academy will be established in the two regions of Beijing and Chengdu by selecting officers and graduates as teachers, and that it will be specially used to train the troops in this region, and to map and map the region and study the methods of warfare in this region. I wonder if Mr. thinks it's okay? ”

Sun Chengzong just lowered his head and pondered for a moment, and then replied: "Your Majesty is extremely worried, the land of Liangguang and Yunnan has always been regarded as a miasma land, especially the defense of Guangxi and Yunnan, which is mainly based on local native soldiers.

Although Guangxi Wolf Soldiers and Yunnan Tusi have always been submissive to the imperial court, before the Southwest Lu'an Rebellion, the Luxury family and the An family were also Tusi families who were loyal to the imperial court.

All things are foreseen, and those who are not prepared are wasted. It is now imperative to reorganize and train the officers and troops in the two regions of Guangxi and Yunnan. The minister thought that it was appropriate to set up a military academy in Liangguang. I wonder where Your Majesty wants to build this military academy? ”

Zhu Youzhen immediately replied: "I think Guilin is good, now Guilin is the capital of Guangxi, and it has been developed for a long time, and it is still the gateway of Hunan to Guangxi, and the geographical location is concise, so it is more appropriate to set up a military academy here." ”

The two only talked for a while, and then decided on the establishment of the Guilin Military Academy, and then Zhu Youzhen said the second thing.

"Now that we have signed a peace treaty with Houjin, and we are discussing with the Chahar Department on the division of the grassland outside the Datong Pass, the northern border of the Ming Dynasty can be regarded as temporarily stable.

Next, I hope that the General Staff will set an overall strategic issue for the Ming Dynasty. As the direction of the future military development of the Ming Dynasty, it is also a plan for comprehensively planning, deploying, and guiding the construction and use of military forces. ”

Regarding this new term that came out of Chongzhen's mouth, Sun Chengzong repeated softly in his mouth rather confused, "Strategy? ”

He seemed to think of something quickly, and asked Chongzhen: "The minister remembers that Sima Biao of the Western Jin Dynasty wrote a book called "Strategy", isn't the strategy that Your Majesty said the same as what he said in the book?" ”

Zhu Youzhen had no impression of Sun Chengzong's book, he tilted his head sideways and thought about it before saying: "I haven't read this book, but my explanation of strategy is: Strategic issues are things that study the laws of the overall situation of war.

To put it simply, it is the art and science of using the armed forces of a country, through the use of force or the threat of force, to achieve the objectives of national policy.

In other words, the study of the laws of war and the use of them to guide the thinking and principles of war is strategy. ”

Seeing that Sun Chengzong was still a little unclear, Zhu Youzhen explained again: "For example, when we face the enemy on the battlefield, it is a matter of tactics.

But decide where and when to fight the enemy, how many troops to mobilize on the battlefield, calculate how long the war will last, and how much supplies will be allocated to support the war. Even whether or not to wage war with the enemy is a matter of strategy.

Now the financial revenue of the Ming Dynasty is completely insufficient to support and deal with two enemies at the same time. Therefore, I asked the General Staff to first rank the current enemies of the Ming Dynasty with the potential enemies according to the degree of danger.

Then develop a plan to destroy the enemy in order, a plan for a sudden war, and a plan for the worst-case scenario.

The General Staff could not wait for the enemy to appear in front of the Ming before it began to think of ways to destroy the enemy. Our ultimate goal is to strangle the enemies of the Ming Dynasty in the cradle, such as the Jianzhou Jurchen, which must not be repeated in the future. ”

Sun Chengzong finally understood what Zhu Youzhen meant, but he was cultivated by the Confucian ideological system, and it was still a little difficult for him to accept Chongzhen's statement.

He hesitated for a moment before replying: "Formulating a plan for how to deal with the enemy of the Ming Dynasty is the job that the General Staff should do. But Your Majesty, what does this list of potential enemies of the Ming Dynasty mean?

My Ming Dynasty has always adhered to the system of suzerainty and vassals, and if I treat the surrounding small feudal states with sincerity, they will surrender to my Ming Dynasty obediently.

In the past, Chen Zhen called King Qin Hui and said: ... Two tigers fight, the big one is injured, and the small one dies. Bian Zhuangzi snatched it from the wounded, and in one fell swoop, he had the merit of two tigers. Today, Han and Wei attack each other, and they are incomprehensible year after year, and they will inevitably be injured in a big country, and a small country will die.

Your Majesty, if we regard the surrounding small countries as potential enemies of the Ming Dynasty, although the Ming Dynasty is big, there will be a day when the veterans of the country will be tired, and then how will the Ming Dynasty protect itself? ”

Zhu Youzhen hesitated, and then said: "A generation does a good job for a generation, isn't the most important thing now to take care of the present?" The affairs of future generations will naturally be troubled by future generations themselves.

If we think about the future everywhere, but we accidentally can't even keep it today, then no matter how good we say, we can only become the laughing stock of future generations, right? ”

Sun Chengzong thought about the current situation in Daming, and finally lost interest in continuing to advise Chongzhen.

In the end, he had to ask Chongzhen: "Then does Your Majesty have any requirements for the strategic issues that the General Staff is preparing to study?" ”

Zhu Youzhen blinked his eyes and said, "I think that the strategy of the Ming Dynasty should now be based on defending the north and taking the south.

Five or six out of ten of the Ming Dynasty's financial endowments come from the southeast, and the biggest problem of today's Ming military system reform is the lack of money and food, so stabilizing the southeast and ensuring that the Ming Dynasty's financial endowment is not infringed upon is the most important strategy of the Ming Dynasty at present.

In order to ensure the stability of the southeast region, the first is to ensure the security of the southeast coast and even the sea; The second is to ensure that the rebellion in the southwest region will be quelled as soon as possible so as not to affect the economic development of the southeast region..."